Past, present and future of tourist tracking

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to find out tourism movement patterns via the tracking of tourists with the help of positioning systems like GPS in the rural area of the Lake Constance destination in Germany. In doing so past, present and future of tourist tracking is illustrated. Design/methodology/approachThe tracking is realized via common smartphones extended by an app, with dedicated sensors like position loggers and a survey. The three different approaches are applied in order to compare and cross-check results (triangulation of data and methods). FindingsMovement patterns turned out to be diverse and individualistic within the rural destination of Lake Constance and following an ants trail in sub-destinations like the city of Constance. Repeat visitors and first-time visitors alike always visit the bigger cities and main day-trip destinations of the Lake. A possible prediction tool enables new avenues of governing tourism movement patterns. Research limitations/implicationsThe tracking techniques can be developed further into the direction of “quantified self” using gamification in order to make the tracking app even more attractive. Practical implicationsAn algorithm-based prediction tool would offer new perspectives to the management of tourism movements. Social implicationsFurther research is needed to overcome the feeling of invasiveness of the app to allow tracking with that approach. Originality/valueThis study is original and innovative because of the first-time use of a smartphone app in tourist tracking, the application on a rural destination and the conceptual description of a prediction tool.